The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

1. The Industrial Revolution and the pre-industrial economy; Part I: 2. The high wage economy of pre-industrial Britain; 3. The agricultural revolution; 4. The cheap energy economy; 5. Why England succeeded; Part II: 6. Why was the Industrial Revolution British?; 7. The steam engine; 8. Cotton; 9. Coke smelting; 10. Inventors, enlightenment, and human capital; 11. From industrial revolution to modern economic growth.

Robert C. Allen is Professor of Economic History at Oxford University and a fellow of Nuffield College. His books include Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450-1850 (1992), and Farm to Factory: A Re-interpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution (2003), both of which won the Ranki Prize of the Economic History Association.

'Robert Allen has for decades been one of the broadest-ranging and most imaginative scholars in economic history. In this highly original and superbly-researched book, he has set new standards for the study of one of the most critical episodes of human history, the British Industrial Revolution. A must-read for scholars ranging from eighteenth-century history to the economics of modern growth.' Joel Mokyr, author of The Gifts of Athena and The Enlightened Economy 'This important book should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the origins of the industrial revolution. It puts technological change centre stage and places success in invention firmly in the context of economic incentives and business realities that made 18th-century Britain different. This is a stellar demonstration of how subtle economic analysis informed by detailed historical knowledge can provide a persuasive new interpretation of a defining moment in world economic history.' Nicholas Crafts, Professor of Economic History, University of Warwick 'Bob Allen has written, in his usual transparent style, a brilliant book on two of the main questions of economics (or economic history): why did the Industrial Revolution happen in Great Britain, and why did it cause a fundamental break in long term economic development. He argues convincingly that relative prices - high nominal and real wages, and low energy costs - were fundamental in inducing British entrepreneurs and inventors to search for technological solutions that would be labour saving and energy (and capital) using, and that the same relative prices explain why this search process was successful on the British Isles, and much less so on the European Continent. He also demonstrates that, once this process of creative destruction was set in motion, the efficiency of the technologies increased so sharply, that they became highly competitive in different environments - and therefore, after 1820, began to revolutionize the world